What do systematic reviews say?

Active drain vs passive drain

It is very uncertain whether active drain changes length of hospital stay compared with passive drain following pancreatic surgery (very low certainty).

• Prophylactic abdominal drainage for pancreatic surgery 2021 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  no estimate extracted
  2 studies · 321 participants
  Very low

Early vs late drain removal following pancreatic surgery

It is very uncertain whether early changes length of hospital stay compared with late drain removal following pancreatic surgery (very low certainty).

• Prophylactic abdominal drainage for pancreatic surgery 2021 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  no estimate extracted
  3 studies · 399 participants
  Very low

Drain use vs No drain

Drain use showed no clear difference in length of hospital stay compared with no drain use following pancreatic surgery (low certainty).

• Prophylactic abdominal drainage for pancreatic surgery 2021 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  no estimate extracted
  3 studies · 876 participants
  Low

Drain vs No drain

• Abdominal drainage versus no drainage post‐gastrectomy for gastric cancer 2015 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  no estimate extracted
  4 studies · 438 participants
  Low